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Baylor Women's Basketball 2017 NCAA Tournament Capsule

Baylor overcame a rare home conference loss to Texas back on February 6th to win their seventh consecutive Big 12 regular season championship. This edition of the Bears is another balanced offensive unit that can also lock opponents down defensively since on most nights Baylor has the athleticism advantage. The key is going to be how do the Bears respond when they face a team that can match their physicality and are equally elite defensively.

When Baylor took on Connecticut early on in November, the Bears didn’t play scared against the Huskies and were tied at 54 late in the contest. And that was in Storrs. So if Baylor gets another shot at Connecticut on a neutral floor, they should have plenty of confidence that they can beat the Huskies. Alexis Jones and Alexis Prince are both very effective shooters from the behind the three-point arc and, when they are on, it opens things up down low for Nina Davis to dominate in the paint. Davis is a very efficient shooter as she is shooting 54.8 percent from the floor on the season. Kalani Brown does an outstanding job of controlling the glass with offensive and defensive rebounds and that sets the tone defensively for the rest of the team.

Why They Can Disappoint:

In the loss to Texas, the Bears did not come out with enough intensity and focus at the defensive end of the court. The Longhorns scored 47 points in the first half. In addition, Texas was able to shoot over 50 percent from the floor for the game, which is also a very rare occurrence for a Kim Mulkey coached team. If Baylor has issues shooting the basketball as the NCAA Tournament goes on that will also increase their risk of losing. They had a critical stretch in the loss to Connecticut where they could not buy a basket and turned the ball over several times. Free throw shooting is another potential problem spot as the Bears are only shooting 67.4 percent from the line heading into the NCAA Tournament. Missed free throws proved to be very costly in the Elite Eight last year in Dallas against Oregon State in a 60-57 loss.